NAMM 2016: Way Huge Sounds Bigger Than Ever!

Thursday, 21 January 2016

There's plenty of new goodies to admire at NAMM 2016, including these three new pedals by Way Huge. The Green Rhino MKIV and Overrated Special (both overdrive pedals), and the Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz MKIIS proudly offer a wealth of settings to adjust and an aptly huge sound. While these Way Huge pedals sound plenty big, their housings have been kept as compact as possible, which means they're very practical.

Bonamassa-worthy

Guitar-playing fans of Joe Bonamassa's should will likely be excited try out the Overrated Special Overdrive for themselves. This stompbox, designed especially for the aforementioned legendary blues guitarist by Way Huge founder Jeorge Tripps, was based on an old version of the Green Rhino. To stay as faithful as possible to Joe's distinct overdrive sound, the pedal places more emphasis on the midrange, and allows you to further boost the low mids with its special 500Hz control, for a sound that's truly worthy of a Bonamassa solo! Just like the two other newcomers, it can be powered by any regular (separately available) 9V power adapter.

Angry rhinoceros

Before we turn to the Swollen Pickle, we'll have a look at the Green Rhino Overdrive MKIV. This new edition of the aggressive Green Rhino is a bit smaller than its predecessor, so that it will better fit amongst the rest of your pedals. Another change is the addition of a 500Hz control, which complements the 100Hz control nicely. However, if you'd prefer to go back to the stompbox stone age, simply flip the Classic switch up and both those dials will be switched off. Whether the Green Rhino gives you a bit of an edge or pretty much hands you a chain saw, depends on whether you use it on a clean or a distorted channel on your amplifier.

Experimenting with fuzz

The Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz MKIIS hasn't seen to many changes, but we'd like to shine a spotlight on it nonetheless. The only new thing about it is its smaller housing (meaning the S probably stands for Small), and of course it still allows you to dirty up your guitar sound with beautiful bucketloads of gritty fuzz. Out of all three new stomp boxes, this one most lends itself to experimentation: you can adjust the core sound with the Loudness and Sustain controls, after which you can go crazy using the Scoop (less mids) and Crunch (amount of fuzz compression) controls. Finally, there are even two mini controls hidden under the bonnet, with Clip (the type of fuzz sustain) and Voice (Scoop intensity) also being adjustable.

Be sure to keep an eye on the relevant product pages for up-to-date information on delivery times and pricing.